Characters: Tinderbox
Name: Rocio Ruiz
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 155 pounds
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Ethnicity: Latino (American of Mexican descent)
Known relatives: Abuela Xiomara Ruiz (paternal grandmother, deceased), Abuelo Gabriel Ruiz (paternal grandfather, deceased), Gary Ruiz (father), Crystal Ruiz (mother, deceased), Daniel Ruiz (brother)
Education: Associate's degree in General Studies from El Camino College
Aliases/nicknames: Ro-Ro
Best known for: Destroying an army base in the southwest
Known Affiliations: United States Army, The Foundation
Place of birth: Las Vegas, NV
Marital status: Single
Skills/abilities: Tinderbox continuously draws and stores geothermal energy from the ground (regardless of the planet, she'll eventually learn). She can wield this energy in a variety of ways, from bursts of heat from her hands to consciously creating geysers of heat and gas from the ground and manipulating the gases to create corrosive acidic rain or create clouds of gas to suffocate, burn, or otherwise incapacitate enemies. When using her powers, she grows a darker, stone-like layer of epidermis which greatly increases her durability and resistance to injury, allowing her to shrug off .45 caliber shells easily.
Brief personal history: Rocio joined the military in order to get more money to finish college. The daughter of hard working, legal immigrants, she grew estranged from her father after her mother died in a domestic terrorism incident. Rocio had been the first person in her family to enjoy higher education and wanted to continue on so she could become a teacher. While in service, she found herself dragged into Alphabet City's Project: Prodigal as a sacrificial lamb after standing up for her friend after the son of Prodigal's proponent, Senator Alvin Longbow, committed a sexual assault. Her unique combination of genetics and the project's experimental properties gave her fantastically destructive powers and a chip on her shoulder. She fell under the protection of the super soldier Jarhead (secretly a product of Alphabet City's previous operation Project: Flagwaver) and destroyed Longbow's work and (apparently) the Alphabet City facility. Taking the name Tinderbox after a memory of her grandparents' home and ushered into public service by Jarhead, she was welcomed into a growing community of extrahuman heroes.
Written by Hannibal Tabu
Character design by Jason Reeves